This invention relates to automotive electronic systems and, in particular, to communication systems, such as of the type which produce a signal capable of initiating operation of a garage door opening device or the like.
Hand-held garage door opener transmitters have traditionally posed a difficulty in providing a convenient location for the device within the vehicle. Such devices have been found attached to the sun visor with Velcro fasteners or metal clips, or stowed loosely in storage compartments, and the like.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,228 for a GARAGE DOOR OPENING TRANSMITTING COMPARTMENT, a compartment is provided in an overhead console of a vehicle having a pivotable door. The driver positions the hand-held transmitting unit of the garage door opener in the compartment. In order to open or close the garage, the driver presses the pivotable door which, in turn, physically actuates the hand-held transmitting unit. The difficulty in such system is that the driver still must reach to the location of the hand-held transmitting unit to actuate the unit. This requires a reach by the driver plus limits the places where the transmitting unit can be placed in the vehicle. Furthermore, the transmitting unit is vulnerable to being easily stolen by anyone having even momentary access to the interior of the passenger compartment.
In order to overcome this difficulty, it has been proposed to incorporate the function of the garage door opener within the vehicle. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,155 for a VEHICLE ACCESSORY TRAINABLE TRANSMITTER. The difficulty that the ""155 patent was intended to overcome was the encoding of signals from the garage door opener. The signals are encoded in order to reduce the likelihood that a stray signal will open a garage door opener or that an intruder will be able to simulate the garage door opening signal. The ""155 patent discloses a vehicle electronic system having a learning capability in which the hand-held garage door opener transmitter supplied by the manufacturer is trained on the vehicle system and actuated wherein the vehicle system learns the code of the garage door opener.
The state of the art of garage door openers has evolved to the use of rotating codes in which the code transmitted by the hand-held unit and recognized by the garage door opener is constantly changing. While this provides a further enhancement to security, it makes operation of a trainable garage door opening feature in a vehicle unworkable without knowledge of the manufacturer""s coding sequence. The sharing of that information by the manufacturer, in turn, makes the coding sequence known to more persons and, therefore, less secure.
There remains a need for a vehicle-based system which incorporates a garage door opening transmitting function within the vehicle which will accommodate virtually all commercially available garage door opener systems, including those utilizing rotating codes.
A vehicle-based garage door opener system is provided according to the invention which is useful with a conventional hand-held transmitting unit. The system includes a user-operable input device, which is preferably conveniently located with respect to the driver""s seat, and at least one cradle which is configured to support one or more hand-held transmitting units and located remotely from the input device, such as in a glove compartment, a trunk, a parcel shelf, a seat back, or an off vehicle location. A link is provided between the input device and the at least one cradle and is adapted to actuate the at least one hand-held transmitting unit positioned in the at least one cradle.
One advantage of the garage door opener system according to the invention is that it is useable with all types of vehicle garage door opener hand-held transmitters, including those which transmit analog signals, digital signals, encoded digital signals, and signals encoded with rotating codes, fixed frequency, and spread spectrum RF signals. Indeed, a garage door opener system according to the invention is useable with yet to be garage door systems and is thereby both forwardly and rearwardly compatible. Furthermore, a garage door opener system according to the invention can be added as a feature to the vehicle for relatively low cost because it does not incorporate the garage door function per se into the vehicle. This is especially important with garage door opener systems utilizing rotating codes which, otherwise, would require the vehicle manufacturer to incorporate schemes of numerous garage door opener manufacturers. A garage door opener system according to the invention provides convenient garage door operation to the vehicle operator who merely needs to actuate a button which is in the easy reach of the vehicle operator. Furthermore, this operation is carried out without the garage door opener hand-held unit providing clutter within the vehicle interior. Additionally, a garage door opener system according to the invention allows the hand-held transmitting unit to be positioned in a secure location which is typically equipped with a lock.
These and other objects, advantages and features of this invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.